PPC Professionals: 2014 Will Be About Conversion Rate Optimization

“2014 will be the Year of Design,” declares Hanapin Marketing as the result of itsÂ new survey [pdf] of PPC professionals. The study, fielded among “hundreds of search marketing professionals,” found that 85% will focus more on conversion rate optimization next year, compared to just 2% who will focus less on this area. Around 6 in 10 plan to focus more on entering new ad networks.Â

Search ad networks appear to have the leg up on social networks when it comes to planned spending increases. 73% plan to spend more on Google AdWords while 55% will spend more on Bing ads. By comparison, 52% will spend more on display networks, and the same proportion plan to hike their spending on Facebook. LinkedIn (26%), Twitter (24%) and other social networks (18%) will get a spending boost from fewer professionals.

In fact, 68% find social ads to be moderate-to-not important. By contrast, 95% say text ads are important or very important, and 64% feel the same way about remarketing.

Overall, 84% are hungry for more spending, saying current levels are still not high enough.Â 72% of respondents say they plan to increase their PPC spending next year.

Respondents appear to be confident about the state of the market, with 83% saying they feel “good” or “very good.” Nevertheless, their enthusiasm is a little more tempered when compared to last year: 65% feel “good” or “very good” compared to 2012.

About the Data: 63% of respondents have annual PPC budgets of more than $300,000 and 45% have budgets of more than $1 million. 60% are managers or higher with their company.